Literacy Resources, Inc. created the 1st grade phonemic awareness Assessments to align to the Phonological Awareness Standards of the Common Core State Standards for 1st grade, and to assess a child’s progress with phonemic awareness throughout the school year. The skills are labeled with the Reading Foundations Common Core State Standard for Grade 1. Each phonemic awareness skill that is assessed is part of the daily phonemic awareness lessons written by Dr. Michael Heggerty, founder of Literacy Resources, Inc.

Phonemic awareness is auditory, and should be assessed in this way. Students are not expected to read or write any of the words in the phonemic awareness portion of the assessment; the teacher says the words or sounds aloud and the student responds orally. Students are asked to respond with the sounds the letters make, not the letter name. As the assessment administrator, you will be providing students with letter sounds, not letter names.

If you are concerned that a student has not yet mastered the letter names and letter sounds, a separate assessment for Letter & Sound Recognition can be administered, and can be found with the Kindergarten assessment materials.

The assessments are designed to monitor student progress with the phonemic awareness skills and can be used to inform your instruction. There are three assessments available for 1st grade and then can be administered at the beginning of the school year, mid-year, and at the end of the school year to monitor student progress. After administering each assessment, teachers can review incorrect student responses to evaluate and determine future lessons and plan for intervention.

The information gathered from the assessments is meant to inform the teacher’s instruction, as the phonemic awareness curriculum is implemented in an intervention setting. It is recommended that students who score in the “Intervention Recommended” range for a phonemic awareness skill would receive additional support and intervention, and only in the specific skill or skills with which they struggle. Teachers and Interventionists can use the phonemic awareness curriculum to provide students with explicit instruction in these specific skills. Instruction can begin at a place in the curriculum that meets the child’s individual needs, and does not need to begin at Week 1. Teachers can refer to the scope and sequence of skills found on page xiii to help determine the best place to begin instruction.